JOHAN CRUYFF (1947-2016)

Johan Cruyff, who has died aged 68 of cancer, once said his qualities as a footballer were undetectable by a computer. It was surely true that a computer might have recorded his playing stats – the goals, the assists, the distances covered – but would have been incapable of assessing the wonderment generated by his technique and vision, from the late 1960s to the mid-80s, first with Ajax and later with Barcelona and his national team, Holland.

With his anticipation and acceleration, Cruyff seemed to own the entire field of play. Only nominally a centre-forward, he was both orchestrator and predator, at one moment collecting a rolled ball from his keeper to start a move – one arm pointing as he barked orders to his team-mates – and the next materialising at the other end in front of goal for the coup de grace. For opponents it was like trying to pin down air. “Without Cruyff,” said Rinus Michels, his mentor and manager at Ajax, at Barcelona and with the Dutch international side, “I have no team.”

The goals he scored were ones of which no other player was capable – from twisted, one-legged, neck-high karate kicks, and from impossible angles made possible by the way he could shoot with all sides of both feet, the laces, the inside and the outside. No showreel of his talents would be complete, either, without the Cruyff Turn, the trademark feint with the dropped shoulder and 180-degree swivel that broke the will of the Sweden defender Jan Olsson in the 1974 World Cup. “He was at the heart of a revolution with his football,” said Eric Cantona. “If he wanted, he could be the best player in any position on the pitch.”

Cruyff led Ajax to three consecutive European Cups from 1971 to 1973 and, a year later, was the linchpin for Holland as they were beaten 2-1 in the final of the World Cup by West Germany. As a player Cruyff scored 392 times in 520 games over a 19-year career but his influence reached far beyond creating goals, thanks to his qualities as a leader, thinker and speaker. As a coach he had 242 victories in 387 matches, with 75 draws and 70 defeats, and created Barcelona’s Dream Team of the early 1990s, which included Romario, Hristo Stoichkov, Michael Laudrup, Ronald Koeman and Pep Guardiola. They won four consecutive La Liga titles and, in 1992, the club’s first European Cup. “Cruyff painted the chapel,” Guardiola said, “and Barcelona coaches since merely restore and improve it.”

Ajax today issued a short statement: “The greatest Ajax player of all time had suffered with lung cancer since October last year. Ajax share in this great loss and wish the families much strength.” The initial reaction from Barcelona was succinct. Before the grand tributes that will follow, the club tweeted simply: “We will always love you, Johan. Rest in peace.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better” – Johan Cruyff.

Flowers are laid at a statue of Johan Cruyff near the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. Photograph: Koen van Weel/EPA

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